The phrase "avoid characterizing" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used when advising someone to refrain from making specific descriptions or classifications about a subject.
Example: "In your analysis, please avoid characterizing the data too narrowly, as it may lead to biased conclusions."
Alternatives: "refrain from describing" or "steer clear of defining".
The Reuters news agency, for example, only uses terms such as "terrorist" and "freedom fighter" in direct quotes or third-party attributions to avoid characterizing the subjects of news stories.
A school interested in attracting the best teachers, for instance, should avoid characterizing the ideal candidate as "nurturing" or "supportive" in the ad copy, because research shows that can discourage men from applying.
Consequently, we should avoid characterizing the mindreading capacities in a way that makes it analytic that non-human animals lack those capacities.
In doing so, this Note emphasizes that it is critical to avoid characterizing private donations as inherently good or inherently bad because solutions permitting unlimited private donations are as undesirable as solutions that completely eliminate them.
In her 2002 book, A Problem from Hell, Samantha Power describes the Clinton Administration's contortions to avoid characterizing as genocide the killings of the Muslims in Bosnia and Tutsi in Rwanda.
Perhaps it is because of the Court's objection to the concept of a "level playing field" that Eric Friedman, a spokesperson for the CFB, is careful to avoid characterizing its system with the phrase.
Russia and China, in calling for a measured reaction, publicly avoided characterizing the rocket launching as a ballistic missile test, and the word missile never appears in the statement.
For weeks, Girardi has avoided characterizing Yankees games as must-wins because they were not elimination contests.
There is a valid substantive basis for questioning whether the president and his administration intentionally avoided characterizing the attack as a terrorist act.
For example, the United States and the People's Republic of China were belligerents during the Korean conflict, though both parties avoided characterizing the hostilities as war.
To date, Nielsen has avoided characterizing the new policy as a deterrent or even as a policy at all.
